Does it bother you when you experience inconsistency with a business?

What about when things are so inconsistent that you’re uneasy about your next encounter? Your trust meter is pretty low with that organization and that doesn’t bode well for their future.

Now when I was a kid – like back in elementary school – I loved April Fool’s Day.

I didn’t just love April Fool’s Day – I LOVED with CRAZY ANTICIPATION APRIL FOOLS DAY!

My thing was pulling epic pranks on my family.

I’d sneak out of my bedroom in the middle of the night, assemble mixing bowls, funnels, and other tools I needed to pull of these pranks.

Some of these my family members experienced that day.

Others took a little more time… and each day that went by was like anticipating Christmas for me.

I couldn’t wait until the first person experienced my prank!

And for my family though I’m sure they were thinking, “OK – What’d Brad do this year and when are we going to find out?”

The first prank that started this whole thing was when I swapped out all of the sugar and salt. Anything in the house that originally salt in it now had sugar and vice versa. You can imagine how that went over when my dad had his coffee that morning and my brothers took their first bite of cereal.

Another year, I swapped out the mayonnaise and miracle whip. I didn’t like that stuff back then so I didn’t really know the difference – but I found out, there is a real difference.

Next it was the Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce.

Another year, I switched out the cinnamon and nutmeg.

One year I swapped out the contents of the Peter Pan creamy peanut butter and the Skippy Crunchy peanut butter… my sister only liked the crunchy stuff, and my dad didn’t.

And I think the straw that finally broke the camel’s back was when I mixed Numzident in with everyone’s toothpaste.

Yep… I really did that.

As a young prankster, I LOVED the element of surprise and being unpredictable when it came to April Fool’s Day.

But this is really bad form if you are a company or brand – or if you’re hoping to get a new glove for little league that year.

Put yourself in my family’s shoes for a moment – but only you’re a customer of a company that isn’t consistent or unreliable.

You’ve probably experienced this at some point as a customer. And depending upon your relationship with this organization or brand, you might have given them a hall pass that first time something didn’t go right – or maybe not.

Successful businesses and brands earn relationships with their customers based on trust.

And Trust in any relationship is established as a result of being dependable, reliable, and… consistent.

Consistency is critical!      It’s expected!  

Nothing kills brands and businesses faster than Inconsistency.

So what do I mean by Consistency?

This is how you deliver your brand into the marketplace and how your customers experience your brand – across every touch point. Each and every time they encounter or consume your brand.

This doesn’t just mean making sure your logo looks the same everywhere it exists – which is a major challenge for a lot of organizations.

Consistency needs to underpin all of your organization’s resources, processes and values.

This is how you hire, develop and retain employees.

This is how you work with suppliers and vendors.

This is how you develop, produce and distribute your products.

This is how your sales organization interacts with prospects as well as existing customers.

If you are a service organization this is how your frontline employees deliver the value your customers expect.

I don’t need to tell you how incredibly competitive the market is today. You live it day in and day out.

There is no shortage of companies out there that want to take a shot at you!

The last thing you need is send any signal that potentially erodes the trust you’ve established with your customers.

If you watch the video at the bottom of this blog post, and if you’re paying attention, you’ll notice that I wore a few different jackets and pairs of glasses during this video.

This will probably a little distracting, and that’s the point I was trying to make about consistency.

As a business and as a Brand, you have a relationship with your customers because of the TRUST you’ve established with them.

This trust has been built over time because you’ve been dependable and reliable.

But, to consistently win in today’s marketplace and to get your business to its NEXT LEVEL of profitable growth, you have to be CONSISTENT.

The consistent delivery of your brand has never been more important than it is today.

Make consistency a priority. Put the right execution and measurement processes in place, so you’re aware of inconsistency before your customers are.

Your customers don’t need much of an excuse to switch to a competitor.

Don’t let that excuse be a lack of Consistency.